A Nifty Online Tool That Will Improve Your Writing

OneLookHave you ever written an article and wished you could find a better way to phrase something?

Do you sometimes repeat the same words in your copy over and over again?

I have these issues all the time and often find myself browsing an online thesaurus for word inspiration.

OneLook to the Rescue!

Well, thanks to a BlogCastFM Interview with Laura Belgray, I now have a more useful tool in my arsenal.

It’s called OneLook – a free online dictionary that lets you perform a variety of different wildcard searches to find related words, concepts and phrases.

For example, let’s say you want to write an alliteration, and you need three words that start with the letter g that mean “happy.”

Simply type the query, g*:happy and the site will churn out the following results…

OneLook Search

You can also seek out related phrases that begin with/contain certain words or match a given concept.

If you enter **happiness** OneLook will reveal phrases that contain the word happiness.

Pretty cool, huh?  I could play with this tool all day!

So the next time you find yourself stumped when you’re writing, or you’d like to unearth a more interesting way to phrase something, fire up OneLook.

It’s like a dictionary on steroids! :)

And while you’re at it, you might as well tune into the BlogCastFM podcast.  It’s chock full of actionable, noteworthy copywriting tips from Laura.  I really enjoyed it.

Are there any tools you use to help enhance your writing?  Do share!

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86 Responses to “A Nifty Online Tool That Will Improve Your Writing”

  1. This great information Lisa. I like the illustration you gave of looking for words that start with a particular letter of the alphabet. I often write poetry, psalms and songs. I think OneLook could be very helpful in this arena of my life.
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  2.  

    This is nice. By the way i have a photography blog. On many posts i use “today i took..”
    so i can use this tools for fresh and different words!
    raghavendra recently posted..New born plantMy Profile

  3. Thanks. I had been viewing an online Thesaurus, but Onelook is good also.
    Betty recently posted..7 Internet Safety Tips For KidsMy Profile

  4.  

    This is an awesome post Lisa and thank you for writing it because I tend to use the same words excessively throughout some of my blog posts. OneLook is a great tool that I will definitely be using a lot.

  5.  

    I like it Lisa :) Definitely a tool that will help me a great deal, considering that I too “repeat” words way too often.. and mind you, this has nothing to do with keyword stuffinf, lol. JK. Thanks, this one is going to my tools vault for sure.
    DiTesco recently posted..Best WordPress SEO Plugins For 2012My Profile

  6. Finding variations on keywords is one of the trickiest things to do when you’re running a site. This tool looks like it’ll be a great help. Thanks for the info :)

  7.  

    Great Tip Lisa I am found of websites and love to explore more and more of the web … this tool is going to help me…
    thanks for the heads up…
    Vimal Dwivedi recently posted..Know The Web : Top 5 Internet Sites To Download Free SoftwareMy Profile

  8.  

    Great tool, looking forward to using it! Thanks for example on how to use it effectively. This is sure to help with my writers block.

  9.  

    Fantastic thanks for passing that Lisa!
    Joe Cannon recently posted..Fitness Newsletter January 2012My Profile

  10.  

    It’s really worth using any tool like this and I do regularly. Sometimes you mind can just go blank when you are trying to think of another word to describe something or you read back what you have written and find you have repeated the same word too many times. Great advice.
    Matt Kinsella recently posted..Never Give UpMy Profile

  11. LOVE OneLook! It was very helpful to me when I was a medical transcriptionist, too.
    Laura Burke recently posted..If you’ve been waiting for a deal, here it is!My Profile

  12.  

    Since English is not my first language I often use online thesaurus and dictionaries to find synonyms and to check the exact meaning of phrases.
    So OneLook will definitely be my new assistant! :)
    Thank you for letting me know about it!
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  13. It is very good tool that you have provided on your especially for guys like me who has problem in english language.I have install the onelook dictitionary.
    Thank you very much for sharing this
    dipesh recently posted..How to Increase Signal Range of Wireless network ?My Profile

  14.  

    That is a cool tool, Lisa. I like the fact that it can perform wild card searches. That will come in handy if I know how to spell part of a word, and then use OneLook to find the rest of the word.
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  15.  

    good recommendation Lisa. I can see article marketers using this tool in their spinning efforts as well.

  16. hello, Lisa! your post is really helpful for me. Because i start writing article for blogging. i think your suggesting tools will helpful for everyone….

  17.  

    What a fantastic tool! And it will make me look clever when I add big words into my future articles. :P
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  18.  

    Writing doesn’t come naturally to me, by writing blogs and articles it has forced me to improve my skills, I have a few aids to help me along, I have now added OneLook to my arsenal writing aids.

  19.  

    I just checked it out and OneLook really has some nice options. I like the reverse dictionary – which is especially good when you are at a loss for words.
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  20.  

    Haha, I’m pretty sure I just played on that site for a half hour. Thanks, Lisa!
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  21. Thanks for the info. However if you use Onelook, you can’t find the meaning of the words you want directly. Although it does help as it gives you a lot of resources to check, i think it is too cumbersome. I still prefer http://www.dictionary.com

  22.  

    Oh yes hahaaaa! this is what I am talking about, as a writer I love new tools, great find Lisa, checked it out, has it’s uses for sure cheers.
    Stephen recently posted..How To Write A Rictameter Poetry FormMy Profile

  23. Hi Lisa

    What a great find. Every writer will get the old ‘writer’s block’ every now and again, but with the handy reference tool your phrasing in your article will once again flow.

    Great job.

    Regards

  24.  

    Very useful and informative. Thanks lisa!
    OneLook is a tool we all need…
    Jawad Hyder recently posted..Change your username in WordPressMy Profile

  25.  

    Great recommendation. I mostly use Word to create my posts. I right click on my mouse and use the synonym tool from there. This is very useful and I can see why it will be very popular.
    Anne recently posted..How To Write An Article Online – 2My Profile

  26.  

    Sounds awesome Lisa!

    Being a freelance writer, I always need to juggle up with words and do was looking out for such a tool. Glad you shared and write about it.

    Heading over to check it out right away- thanks so much for sharing it :)
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  27.  

    Thanks for sharing it’s good to have an online Dictionary Search tool like OneLook.
    Amrik Virdi recently posted..5 Methods To Build A Niche BlogMy Profile

  28.  

    I frequently spend extra minutes searching for just the right word, so this site should come in handy. Thanks, Lisa!

  29.  

    I just found out about OneLook last week, but I didn’t know about that search by first letter and meaning. Sometimes, the word I want is just out of reach. I know the first letter and the meaning, and now OneLook will help me find it faster.

    I look up synonyms on Google all the time, but I think OneLook will be handy too.
    Tammi Kibler recently posted..10 Things I Love About TextbrokerMy Profile

  30.  

    Hey Lisa:

    Thanks for giving me another distracting tool to play with:) I LOVE it! Thanks for sharing it with your list.
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  31. I face the same problem as well. I don’t have much trouble writing unique articles, but then I have to spin and use synonyms in order to be able to submit them in other directories. I have tried the site and it provided a lot of search result that allows me to choose which dictionary I want to use. It looks convenient. Thank you for sharing.
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  32.  

    Nice Lisa, I have used too many tools like this and by integrating the results of all I always gets the most valuable keywords. I do try this one. This surely going to add value mu inventory.
    John Cooper recently posted..snow socksMy Profile

  33. Great tips lisa..
    i like your word It’s like a dictionary on steroids!…
    must a good tool
    TopiJerami90 recently posted..Petua Kempiskan PerutMy Profile

  34.  

    Great tool Lisa! I have been using this tool for some time and it really helps me during the writing process. Hopefully others will take your advice and give it a try :)
    Dominic recently posted..How to Update the iPod Touch SoftwareMy Profile

  35.  

    Lisa I like having many tools with many options, but WordPress editor does pretty good for me. It has a proofreading tool so It is pretty hard to make many mistakes. I use it all the time to find grammatical errors. I will take a look at onelook, thanks.
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  36. It’s my first time to hear about onelook. And yes, it’s great.

    I tried searching “love”. While it gives different meaning of it, it also gives a lot of links to other dictionary online.

    Actually, I am using Microsoft Word when composing articles. It gives me ease when looking for synonyms and correcting wrong spelling and grammar.

    But, OneLook can be of great help too. Besides, the website responds faster.
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  37. Just gave this a try and it works well!

  38. Great tool so your words don’t get too repetitive.

  39. Hey! Thanks for sharing once once more. I love reading your blog for the reason that you usually write creative posts. Well written article…I plan to bookmark your web site. I believe I shall subscribe to the current feed moreover.
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  40.  

    I believe in having more tools. I will give this a try. Thanks for letting us know.
    Michael Belk recently posted..Planned Parenthood Clinics | Right or Wrong Decision?My Profile

  41. Handy tip for sure! Thanks for sharing and I will continue to check back for more helpful tips.
    Great site BTW.
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  42.  

    Thanks a lot for this tips on getting words to help improve our blogging endeavor.
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  43. I am going to use that build a website of yours. the one for premium it’s 14.99 a month. I am going to post your products on my site to sell, and I am going to buy products you recommend over the years. Thanks for the help. I have been reading your newsletter and checking out your site about a year. I been learning affiliate marketing and google adsense. Good job helping people. Don’t let the few malicious and jealous and mean people discourage you. You do a good job trying to help people.

  44. Thanks for the tip. Of course you still need to have some imagination to be able to write in the first place and sadly that it what I lack lol.
    Seb recently posted..Nike SFB Tactical Combat Boots Where Style Meets the Demands of SoldiersMy Profile

  45. This is an exciting tool Lisa, it’s more like a “smart” thesaurus. I’ve used it before and it is in fact very helpful to break writers block within a sentence or phrase. Good find…!
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  46.  

    Hi Lisa,
    Thanks for a good information.It is really helpful.
    I like it very much.

  47.  

    So finally here is a great plugin which will help me improve my writing skills. BTW, are you aware of any site listing the best phrases which can be used in articles?
    Saksham Talwar recently posted..StudioPress Discount CodeMy Profile

  48.  

    @Kurt – a “smart” thesaurus indeed! Thank you, Lisa, for this helpful tool. I think it shall replace thesaurus.com that I’d been using for ages.
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  49. That’s a really usefull site, thanks!… i’ll add it to my bookmarks as it will also be useful for my online press releases! Cheers Lisa

  50.  

    a dictionary on steroids…hehe..love that description. I’ve bookmarked the tool and will definitely be using it and recommending it to others as well. Thanks for sharing.
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  51. It would be a very helpful tool for bloggers. It would also help saves a lot of time for them. This will reduce the redundancy of using words in a post.

    Monotonous sounding blog would be a boring one to read. By using this tool, this kind of blog would be prevented.
    Kee G. recently posted..Add Floating Social Bookmarking For Blogger BlogMy Profile

  52.  

    Thats really cool. It is like a thesaurus, but handier, or at least thats what it sounds like to me. I do feel like I use some of the same words in my blog posts too often. I might try this tool.
    Katie Woodard recently posted..One Chance – Walk of Shame Music VideoMy Profile

  53.  

    Hello! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading your posts. Thanks

  54. Thank you Lisa. I just added this tool to my favorites. I know it will come in handy when I am looking for just the right word to use.

  55. Hi Lisa, Generally, i used to write the blog articles on MS Word and i feel comfort with it. Because it corrects spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes to some extent and also, we get word suggestions with the built-in thesaurus.

    With oneLook, i really like the search query technique which definitely helps to dig deeper for those who are doing (key)word research.

    Thanks.
    Mr.Ven recently posted..Using a Printing Service to Market your Online Business 4 Practical WaysMy Profile

  56. Smooth sailing tip for sure to all bloggers! I love the search query tool for better blogging techniques. But, above all our mind can be the best and most powerful among all the nifty tools.
    Alex recently posted..What is the best online backup?My Profile

  57.  

    Thanks for sharing this really useful tool, Lisa. The most that I’ve used was a Thesaurus for getting some other words to use for my blog posts. This is going to be a great help, especially during those days when I’m struggling with a case of writer’s block and slow down.
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  58. “It’s like a dictionary on steroids! ” i like that statement a lot and the site Onelook too.

  59. “It’s like a dictionary on steroids! ” i like that statement a lot and the site Onelook too.
    johnavery recently posted..Yoga Tours IndiaMy Profile

  60. It’s a great thing to have something that will inspire you to write. Sometimes, all it takes for me is a new word to get me going. Not to mention the improvement of the vocabulary.
    Lily Rose recently posted..OxiracetamMy Profile

  61.  

    Great to have such service. But it is appreciated if they provide the onelook Wordpess plugin for bloggers like me who is using wordpress.
    Raja recently posted..Vishal at Aruwe child and Oldage Home 10 Years CelebrationMy Profile

  62. Hey just dropping by to say Onelook is a great tool and i seriously recommend to anybody who regularly writes articles / content as it has helped me so much!

  63.  

    Just a suggestion. For my personal taste I thought your menu items in the red bar could be a little bolder-easier to read.

  64.  

    yes, this stuff is cool. I’ve been looking for some that can really help improve my writing skills. Lisa u killed it thanks for the tips.
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  65. Thanks Lisa! This looks like a very useful tool and it will undoubtedly save me a lot of time wracking my brain for suitable synonyms. I’m a sucker for alliteration so this will be a big help!
    Alan Fagan recently posted..What are QR Codes?My Profile

  66. Really nice tool, been using it for a while and definitely got my writing improved. My suggestion to everyone: Get it!

  67. Great tool, looking forward to using it! Thanks for example on how to use it effectively. This is sure to help with my writers block..

  68. Thank you Lisa! Awesome little tool as I struggle sometimes coming up with words when writing on blogs or forums. Look forward to giving this a shot.
    Thanks again Lisa and have a great day :)
    Don

  69. Fantastic thanks a lot for passing that Lisa!
    Nice article….

  70. Wow that’s a great article. It would help me in writing better. I have my own blog and sometimes I’m out of words. This would help then.
    Thanks
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  71. That is brilliant… Just want I needed badly! Thanks for the ideas of OneLook.. This is very useful for the me..
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  72. That is a really helpful topic for the article spinners.I really appreciates your Work plus I have visit this blogs first time i am really happy with LISA,this world need this kinds of talented person to go forwards. Thanks :)

  73. Hi Lisa

    this a valuable information. I recently started writing blog and was facing problem of writing same words again and again. Onelook will surely help me and also i can write my blogs quite fast. Thanks a lot.

  74. OneLook seems impressive, useful websites for natural non English speakers like me.
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  75. This is an awesome post Lisa and thank you for writing it because I tend to use the same words excessively throughout some of my blog posts. One Look is a great tool that I will definitely be using a lot.
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  76. This is pretty cool indeed.. Thanks for sharing this with us! :)
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  77.  

    Spelling error is the basic thing for many of them including me but such tools are great as a healping hand, COOL TOOL.
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  78.  

    This is interesting. Because English isn’t my first language, I often find myself looking for phrases to substitute for longer sentences. Though I have studied at an English school; I am lost for words at times! This will be fun! :)
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  79. Hi Lisa,

    This post will really be of help especially that I am also working more on writing stuff for my online job. As always Lisa thank you for always sharing such a wonderful post.

    Also if you don’t mind allow me to share Over the last four months I have been learning from an Aussie guy named Timothy Marc on how to build a business that allows you to live a freedom lifestyle. Without a doubt, I have learned some amazing skills in business from this guy, and I am currently seeing some great profits from my own business.

    I know this post may raise scepticism with some of you, but if this does sound interesting to you, here is a link to my success story on is blog: http://www.freedombusinessblog.com/freedom-business-success-story-tim# and be sure check out his free audio if you like his vibe.

    Ask a question on the blog too and I will help you any way I can.

    Cheers, Tim.

  80. Oh this is going to help me a great deal. Writing is not my strength, but I know taking my time with my posts is key. Thanks for the tips!- EQM
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  81.  

    What a terrific tool! Everyone can use this to write better. Thanks a lot Lisa.

    Your site looks great and appears to be a great resource for your readers. I’m coming back when I have time to dig a little deeper.

    Good Job. I hope your day is great and getting better!

  82.  

    Great tool! I definitely need this tool. Sometimes I get stuck writing articles and it annoys me so bad! I can’t move on an I start calling up friends to see if they can remedy my minor case of writer’s block. I will definitely be using this tool. You might also like to know that I just got stuck righting this article for about five seconds, because I couldn’t think of the proper word I wanted to use.
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  83. You got very nice blog graphic – is it custom made, or maybe some public template? Where can I download it from?
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  84.  

    Hi Lisa

    I have to agree that this is indeed a very nifty tool for Writing. This will surely help other writers improve their vocabulary (which includes ME). I have also tried using synonyms and it also works for me. I guess it would also depend how you use them. Lastly, content-friendly articles are also best for your audience.
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  85. Lisa – I love this! I typically use the online Thesaurus but even it has limits so I hope this is my new alternative :) Thanks for sharing!
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